7. Renée

The last week of school had passed quickly. We had spent all of Saturday celebrating. And on Sunday we actually went hunting. Then the school week came. I thought that it would go very slow seeing as how it was their last week, but it was the complete opposite; it went by quite quickly. The whole week had been a blur, and before I knew it, the week was over.

Carlisle figured by the start of the next school year that I would be done growing, but until then I was just supposed to enjoy my summer; school was finally over and that meant I got to spend my days with my Jacob.

I had talked Mom into letting me and Jacob go and visit Ren for the summer. I hadn't seen her for a very long time, and I missed her very much.

I never called her grandma, or any variation of the word. It made her feel too old. So Ren was what I called her.

Actually, the only one of my grandparents that I actually addressed as such was Charlie. It just didn't seem right to call someone like Carlisle grandpa; not when he was an eternally twenty-three year old. It surprised me sometimes to think about how young Carlisle really was. He had lived so long that he just seemed ageless. It was only in his appearance that he fooled people into thinking otherwise. When you were around him enough though you hardly noticed how young he was.

Esme was very young too. She was only twenty-six after all. The oldest of the family, but still young in her own right. She had such a motherly feel about her that I hardly saw her as being that young though either.

Carlisle and Esme were definitely beyond their years, and if it wasn't for them my family wouldn't exist; Carlisle making us, and Esme keeping us together like she did.

Ren was very different from Carlisle and Esme though. Ren was almost like a child even at her age. She loved life in a way that only a few people did, and she was so carefree that nothing could worry her. She truly reminded me of a child's carefree feelings about life, being too innocent to worry about anything. There weren't many people that grew up and still maintained these traits, but Ren had somehow managed to never loss them. It was my favorite thing about her.

I didn't get to meet her for a little while. Mom had been hesitant at first to make any contact with Ren after her transformation and my birth. She was too afraid that, with Ren's active imagination, she would figure out what we were. She had already come close to guessing; Mom didn't want to take the chance of her guessing right.

Mom had only lasted a year even with all of her resistance before making contact with Ren. It was partly because Ren had gotten really suspicious about Mom always being too busy to even talk on the phone, and mostly because she missed her mom more than she ever thought she would.

I could still remember one of the conversations between Ren and Dad.

"I'm sorry Renée, but she's in class right now," Dad told her.

"Do I really have such bad timing, Edward? Every time I call she is either in class or busy doing something else."

"Perhaps it is just bad luck."

"Is something going on? Is Bella okay?"

"Bella is fine." That was the first truthful thing that Dad had said during the whole conversation.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. She has never been happier. She is just struggling a bit with school. She has a lot of work and studying to do. She is very busy nowadays."

"Edward, you would tell me if something was wrong, right?"

"Of course I would. She's fine, really."

"Okay. Well, I guess I'll call back later."

"It was nice talking to you again."

"Yeah."

"Goodbye Renée."

"Bye."

She had even sent emails,

Bella,

I've been trying to get a hold of you for the last week now. Is everything okay? Edward keeps telling me that you're just busy, but I can't help but think it's something more than that. Please call me and let me know that I'm worrying about nothing. I miss you honey. Mom.

Isabella,

Please talk to me. Just let me know you're okay. If you don't want to call or visit that's okay. Just let me know that you're alright. I feel like you're keeping something from me. I really hope everything is okay. I love you, honey. Don't forget that. Mom.

Mom had felt really guilty for making Ren so worried. She hated it, but she thought it would be easier to just leave her out of her new life. She didn't want Ren to be a part of this, but Mom couldn't bare it anymore. It was truly tearing her up inside. I hated seeing her that way. I could tell it was bothering Dad too. When he had changed, his family had already been gone. He had never had to go through what Mom was going through.

You could tell how bad she truly felt whenever we were around Jazz. Mom would actually get upset if he tried to make her feel better, saying that she deserved to feel this way for doing this to her mom.

One day I couldn't take it anymore. It all seemed silly to me anyway, so I figured I would just go for it.

"Mom, maybe you should just tell her. The Volturi won't find out. And if they do, we will protect her. I don't like those rotten Volturi anyway. They're bad people. Plus, we can beat them if it came to that." I had stopped to rethink my thoughts for a moment. All this talk of war with the Volturi wasn't pleasing Mom, but who could blame me? They had planned to kill me before they had ever even met me, and that had all just been a reason for them to kill my family. In Laymen's terms, we weren't exactly friends.

Then it hit me. It seemed so obvious. I almost wanted to smack myself in the forehead for not thinking of it sooner.

"Why don't you just do like you did with Grandpa? Just tell her enough so we can see her. Let her draw her own conclusions, and when she does, tell her to keep them to herself. You can even shield her thoughts from Dad so he won't know what she's thinking."

That had been enough to get through to Mom. Sure, there were flaws in the plan, but it didn't matter. Whatever happened happened. We would worry about any consequences later. I knew in a normal situation that Mom would have never gone for such a flawed plan, this wasn't a normal situation though. I'm pretty sure that Mom had been at the point that she would have taken any sort of plan or reason as an excuse to see Ren again. Before Dad had ever even agreed to turn her Mom had known that this was something she was going to have to deal with; leaving her human life behind. She had thought that it was something she could do, but people always say that you never truly appreciate what you have until it's gone and I guess that is what had happened to Mom; she hadn't realized how much she truly did love her parents until after she couldn't see them. I could imagine how she was feeling; I couldn't imagine not being able to see my family whenever I wanted. It was something no one should have to do. So, even though the plan wasn't perfect, it was going to have to do.

Mom had started with an email,

Mom,

I'm sorry I haven't been calling or writing you. I've been very busy, but you were right, that was only part of it.

I have something very important to tell you, but I can't do it in a letter. I'm coming to see you. We're coming to see you. Not just Edward and I, someone else that you've never met, but should have a very long time ago. I'm sorry. We'll be there by the end of the week. And don't be worried, everything is okay.

I can't wait to meet you!

She's very excited. You'll love her. I promise. Jacob will be with us too. We'll see you soon. I love you. We love you.

Bella.

I had talked Mom into letting me add in that one part. Who could blame me? I was excited about meeting my Grandma for the first time.

"So, we're going to see Renée?" Jacob had asked after glancing over Mom's shoulder while she had still been writing the letter.

"Yeah, we're going to see Renée," Mom answered.

"Sweet! Do I get to phase in front of a human again?" He had sounded way too excited about that. "The look on their face is always hilarious." Exactly how many humans had he phased in front of?

"I haven't decided how we are going to tell her," Mom said simply. Jake looked disappointed by her answer so she said, "Yes, yes. Maybe you'll get to phase in front of her."

"Yes!" … I worried about him sometimes.

We had ended up on a plane that same day. By the next morning we were in town on our way to Ren's house.

"Oh, Bella! You look so beautiful!" She had scooped Mom up in a hug without even thinking about it. She leaned back away from her, looking over at Dad then back to Mom. "Does this have something to do with what you're keeping from me?"

Mom looked over at Dad, raised her eyebrow at him, then he laughed and nodded. Mom turned her head back so she was looking at Ren, took a deep breath, smiled, then said, "Jake has something he wants to show you."

"Yes!" Jake shouted. He even pumped his fist in the air. I just rolled my eyes at him along with Mom and Dad.

Everything had ended up going good with Ren. She wasn't even scared. She wasn't even surprised! The fact that shape shifters existed barely fazed her at all.

Mom and Dad had introduced me afterwards saying that I was Dad's niece and that they had adopted me, but like Grandpa, I don't think she believed them. When they were telling her this I was sitting with Jacob squishing his hand; if this didn't work out we would never be able to see her again. Ren had looked at me for a very long moment, no doubt seeing her daughter in my face. Mom had a very pained expression on her face; she was just hoping that Ren would accept this explanation. She looked like she was about to question their story, but when Ren looked back at Mom and saw her face she immediately changed her tactics. She looked back at Jacob and I, smiled, and said "Aren't you two the cutest couple." I couldn't help but laugh in relief; I was just so pleased that Ren seemed to understand. The fact that at the time Jake and I hadn't been a couple didn't even bother me, I was too relieved to care.

Ren and I had gotten along quite well, and I couldn't wait to go see her again.

This was the first time I was getting a chance to go see her again. Plus, I was really excited to be going away with Jake. We were planning on spending most of the summer with Ren. We were allowed to stay as long as we wanted, and we could leave whenever we wanted. The only rule was that we had to be back in time for school.

A summer away from Mom and Dad… just me and Jacob. Well, Ren and Phil would be there too, but I didn't think that Ren would be the type to worry. I was surprised that Mom and Dad were letting me go; they were the type to worry. Mom is a worrier, Dad is a protector. It's just the way they are. The fact that they were letting us go on this trip was completely crazy. They barely let me cross the street alone, let alone get on a plane with my boyfriend (I like the sound of that.) and fly across the continent. Forget about being nearly indestructible, someone could kidnap me. This whole thing was strange, but I wasn't complaining. I was going to be able to be alone with my boyfriend (Man, I love that word! Especially in reference to my Jacob.) for the first time since we'd made it official. Granted Jake and I had been alone on many occasions, but you never really feel alone with a mind reader in the house. Sometimes Mom would shield us to give us our privacy, but they're a team, they're in cahoots, there's no way for us to know if she was really shielding us or not. It did help that Alice couldn't see either of our futures, but with Mom and Dad tag teaming all the time we never really felt alone.

A vacation was exactly what we needed.